As you can see, I have already indicated that this is the review of the campaign. For the multiplayer you have plenty of places to check out the gameplay and gunplay and see whether it is to your liking. But the campaign is less subjective and requires special attention because by this time it was made clear that multiplayer shooters are the way forward for big companies and few even claimed that single player story mode is dead. So the onus falls on said company to prove themselves wrong as the market for single player games are still there and will continue to be there as long as there are people who play video games for fun and not for competition. That being said, lets get on with the review.
BF 1 is different from every BF before it. Firstly because it takes place during WWI, a period less explored by video game makers as compared to the super saturated WWII era games, and that the campaign doesn't have a singular story with a handful of characters from the start to finish. Instead it focusses on the unrecognized faces of war, soldiers who fought for freedom across the duration of the Great War in small chapters, each having its own protagonist, objective, region, guns and difficulties to pass through. What is common for all of them, is that each has a very compelling story with superb characterisations of war, well fleshed out characters with great voice acting, superior facial animation and very different gameplay from each other. In each story you feel the urgency of victory and the hordes of Allies converging on you in various ways. But the biggest positive step taken here is normalising the story and mortalising the characters. You are no longer a superhuman character, made to go through an 8 hour campaign and expected to last till the end after overcoming unnaturally difficult obstacles. , instead each campaign chapter has its own well contained story with a very simple goal made clear in the very beginning. The completion of which will end the chapter, one way or the other. This makes each smaller objective feel meaningful as you only have a handful of them to complete before taking on the main objective in parts. This gives weightage to each small region of gunfight and fleshes out the characters fully as you see them react to the war in horror, and not in a pseudo-iron-willed way we are accustomed to seeing our heroes in war shooters.
The gunpay here is excellent as each gun feels weighty and punchy. The reload animations are long and proper. Snipers are not over powered and are as they should be in the era we are fighting in here. BFs speciality: complete environmental destruction is shown here in all its glory as when the fighting starts, you can feel the tension and insecurity behind every kind of cover as none will protect you for long enough for you to spam headshots and clear the battlefield. Grenades are deadly as they will take out chunks from walls and destroy vehicles very quickly. Vehicular combat is engaging and adrenaline pumping, with tanks and planes feeling very lifelike and competent in war and not overpowered. Recovering healthbar does take away from the realism but I guess that's no longer a point worth complaining about anymore.
The graphics are spectacular with sharp textures, brilliant lighting and shading. The sounds of mechanical parts moving around in guns and vehicles add to the immersion and make every gun flight engaging. The only negative to be taken here is perhaps the feeling you get that the campaign is really a portfolio for all the multiplayer can do, as it shows off gamemodes like capture the flag very consciously instead of focusing on the campaign as a separate entity altogether. Still the lack of length and feeling of a second-child cannot take away from the excellent gunplay and story on display here. Playing through the campaign once might not be enough to experience the feeling of complete vulnerability and humanity it offers at a time when superhuman feats of courage are just regular features of video games.